


Not-So Rocky Road

by Otava



Category: Psych
Genre: Arguing, Friendship, Hotels, Hungry, Kissing, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance?, Sharing a Room, Shawn is a sweatheart, Slow Build, Small Road Trip, Snacks & Snack Food, Teasing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-02
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-04-24 08:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4912213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Otava/pseuds/Otava
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shawn and Lassiter are forced to go to a State-wide Law Enforcement meet-up to talk about psychics in the police force.<br/>Lassiter is not so happy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Un-Beta'ed

Two men in a blue Ford Fusion Hybrid drove silently along a crowded Californian highway in awkward silence. The man in the driver's seat kept his sharp eyes angrily fixed on the road ahead of him, occasionally glancing over at the slightly younger man in the passenger’s seat, who was looking out of the window with a blank, mindless expression in his eyes..

The long silence finally snapped about a hour into the journey. “Hey, Lassie,” the younger man in the passenger’s seat said. “I’m hungry. Can we stop for some food. I heard the McRib is back and I heard it calling my name back there.” He reached longingly at the golden arches that whisked behind them in a flash, which were barely visible now.

“No, Spencer. I’m not going to have you stain my upholstery with that disgusting slop of a fake-meat sandwich.”

“Pssh please. That meat is as real as I am a psychic! Besides, Lassie, It’s my soulmate. It needs me and I need it! How can you deprive me of my true love, my first love! My muuuse!?”

“No means no, Spencer.”

‘What a strange man,’ Lassie thought. ‘To be throwing a fit like a child over a stupid sandwich.’

Just then, in defiance, Shawn grabbed a case file from between the seats and flapped the two sides of the folders like the jaws of a puppet and said, “Feed me, Lassie. Feed me. I’m soooo hungry.” in a high-pitched sort of voice. 

“What the hell Spencer-”

“Lassie is such a mean man,” Shawn commented to the folder in his regular voice.

“Tell me about it!” replied the folder.

“Yeah, He won’t let me get McDonnalds!”

“What a jerk,” said the folder.

Head Detective Lassiter snatched the case file from the hyperactive man-child and threw it in the back seat. “Stop messing with the department’s property!”

“The folder was right,” Shawn said quietly. “You are mean.”

* * *

The pair drove for another 40 minutes in silence. Shawn’s stomach actually grumbled twice during that time and Lassiter felt a bit guilty about the whole situation. Shawn had always complained about being hungry and he thought that the man was just simply saying that he wanted a McRib to bother him. It never really crossed his mind that he might _actually_ be a bit hungry. They’d been driving for almost 3 and a half hours now and it was about time for Lassiter to stop for a bite to eat anyway. ‘Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to pop into a restaurant to take a break from driving the congested road for awhile,’ he thought. They technically didn’t have to be in Sacramento until the next day anyway.

“How long has it been since you’ve eaten.” Lassiter asked Shawn in a crisp, non-distinct voice.

“About 4 hours ago, right before we left,” came the reply. There was a pause. “I was going to bring food for the road but I accidently left my snack sack on my motorcycle. I packed it a day ahead and everything!” he pouted. “Corn nuts, hard boiled eggs, grilled cheese, tuna, lunchables, pickles….” The list trailed on.

‘Wow. Corn nuts! Hard boiled eggs! All of the loudest and most annoying foods!’ Lassiter thought to himself angrily.”

There actually was no need to stop for food now he reasoned. He couldn’t believe that he was even considering being kind to somebody who intended to make his trip a living hell. Shawn always annoyed him maybe depriving him of food would teach him a lesson. Thank God Shawn got unlucky with his food plans, now it was Lassiter’s turn to make the man suffer. No food for Shawn. Lassiter’s own stomach growled with hunger at the thought of no food. In reality, he was making himself suffer too, but if it meant Shawn was going to be more miserable than himself for once then it was worth it.

They passed by 2 more McDonald's advertising the McRIb. Not a word was said.

* * *

After the 6 hour drive was over and the two men reached their hotel, Lassie grabbed his belongings out of the trunk while Shawn grabbed his backpack from the back seat. 

The reason the two were on a journey in the first place was because they were representing the Santa Barbara Police Department for a huge meeting of police departments all over California. It was kinda like a police officer’s convention, where the latest ideas, procedures and issues were discussed. Lassiter had been once before but this was Shawn’s first time.

“Do I really have to take Shawn?!” asked Lassiter when the Chief suggested it.

“Yes,” replied chief Vic. “The State asked me to send him along to give a lecture on psychics working with the force.”

“But Chief!”

“That’s enough out of you, Detective Lassiter, I don’t want to hear another word about it.”

“Yes Chief.” he replied glumly.

And so, Carlton Lassiter was forced to take a 6 hour car ride with Shawn Spencer from Santa Barbara all the way to the state’s capital. Together. Alone. It was very awkward in a way, he hadn't really been alone with the man ever and didn't know what to expect with such a long journey. Shawn was usually accompanied with Gus or some one, this was going to be one of their first one-on-one, that lasted a few more minutes.

The two walked into the hotel about 5 paces apart from each other, Shawn at Lassiter's heals and taking in the sights around him. "Reservation for the Santa Barbara Police Department," Lassiter said, glancing back at his new roommate. He knew all along that they would be sharing a room, putting that fact at the back of his mind helped a bit, but now he had to face up to that fact. The room key was handed to him and together Shawn & Lassiter made their way up to their room and put their belongings down on their separate beds. ‘Thank God the beds are separate,’ thought Lassiter. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Shawn stuffing a bowl of complimentary peppermints into his pockets with the look of a 3-year-old trying to steal cookies from the cookie jar without being caught. He let out a big breath. This was going to be a _long_ week-end. 

Immediately after the candy was safely out of the bowl, Shawn looked around and casually shed his pants then proceeded to hop in his twin bed and turned on the TV

“What are you doing,“ hissed Lassiter. We have a presentation in _two_ days.

“Well Lassie, maybe if i had a full stomach I’d be more in the mood to work. But I’m starving. My body is struggling just to say the way it is! You can’t possibly expect me to waste a bunch of energy that I don’t have. It’s been SIX HOURS, Carlton, six.”

Shawn was pleading. He didn’t use the first name on him a lot.

“Fine.” said Lassie. “If I buy you dinner, will you promise me to-” 

Before he could finish his sentence, Shawn got dressed, fixed his hair and bolted out of the door.

“This way Lassie!” Shawn said gleefully running down the corridors as Lassiter clumsily tried to keep up. “I was eyeing this dinner about a block away from the hotel. You’re going to love it!”

Lassiter lost Shawn and was alone for awhile. He paced up and down the street trying to locate him, entering a few restaurants and asking around if anybody had seen a man with particularly “nice hair”. Eventually, the 4th restraunt he entered proved to be the right one. He saw Shawn sitting there with a basket full of bread. 

“Nice of you to finally show up, Lassie. I was worried you weren't going to come."

"Why should you care whether I show up or not," sneered Lassiter.

"Because you're paying."

"Well, I'm only paying if you promise to take your presentation at the seminar seriously. I mean it, Spencer. No tomfoolery. I don't want you making a fool of the department."

"You mean you don't want me making a fool of _you_ , eh Lassie?"

Lassiter's face reddened. Shawn really wasn't that dumb after all.

* * *

Shawn & Lassiter sat for about 20 minutes before their food came. "So what did you order anyway," asked Lassiter.

"Prepare to be surprised," Shawn said with a wink as he held out his hands and waved them in introduction as the waitress came bearing a heapful of food. Chicken and waffles, hamburgers, pizza, sandwiches and a couple of sides.

'Oh my God,' whispered Lassiter under his breath.

Shawn went straight to eating.

"Don't worry, Lassie." Shawn said. "I promise I'll eat it all." He dipped a piece of his burger in a milkshake. " I ordered the sandwich for you but feel free to pick off _my_ plate too if you want. You're paying agreeable."

'What a smug bastard,' Lassiter thought. He took a sip of that he thought was a banana malt and spit it out. Ugh. "What the hell is this?"

"Mine." said Shawn. "But you can have it if you want."

"No way."

Shawn grabbed the beverage from the head detective and took a sip.“I for one, am a fan of delicious flavor." he said explaining. "It's Pineapple Shake." He took another sip and swirled his tongue around the tip of the over-sized straw, letting it drag off in a slow motion.

Lassiter just stared. Not two sips ago his own out mouth had been wrapped around the straw. Was Shawn trying to mess with his head or what?

The two continued to eat. Shawn wolfed everything down as he promised and not much food was left in the end between the two.

“Can I get anything else for you boys?” asked the waitress after a while.

“How about some pie, Jell-O and some ice cream?” asked Shawn. Lassie gave Shawn “the eye” and even the waitress raised her eyebrow a bit wondering how he could possibly eat anymore food. 

“Wow, you two. Can’t you tell when someone’s joking with you?” he said. “A Jello cup will be just fine if you have that.”

They didn’t

“Well anyway thanks for the meal,” he said as he hopped up from his seat and patted Lassie on the back heartily with his grimy hands.

“Shawn is the worst kind of man.” Lassiter thought.

“So, how much do I owe you?” Lassiter asked the waitress as he opened up his wallet.

* * *

Shawn continued on back towards the hotel at a slow enough pace for Lassiter to catch up with him but he never showed, he even waited 10 minutes outside the hotel before deciding to go in. He took a shower and brushed his teeth and still Lassiter had not returned. ‘He couldn’t have gone far,’ Shawn thought. The car they came in was still parked in the lot below, clearly visible to Shawn from the room. Soon it had been a half hour since Shawn had last seen Lassiter. Maybe leaving him alone wasn’t the best idea ever, but he could tell when he wasn’t wanted. Lassiter never really cared for him that much. He could tell that just his presence was a nuisance to the Head Detective. It’s not like he had a choice though, he _had_ to go to the convention with Lassie! At least it was enjoyable to him, the detective was just so fun to tease!

* * *

Another 30 minutes passed and Shawn was starting to get a bit worried and was about to go searching for Lassiter but the man himself walked in just when he was about to get up from his bed.

“Hey there, Lassie.” Shawn said slowly, trying to gauge the situation. Lassiter just grunted. “So what’s up?” Shawn asked again.

“I just wanted to be alone, alright Spencer.”

“Aww. Poor babuuu, you should have just said so. You worried me sick. I waited up just for you!” Shawn said in a playful tone.

Lassiter just scoffed.

Shawn crawled back into bed and wrapped the covers over himself. “Ok, Lassie you just take yourself a nice warm shower and pretend that I’m not here.” 

Right as he said those words he realized that they sounded creepier than he expected. Lassiter just scoffed at him.

Lassiter’s shower was quick and cold from what Shawn could see. The man was practically shivering as he got into bed. Shawn turned to face Lassiter and said, “If you get lonely or feel cold at night, feel free to hop in. You did buy me dinner after all.” Lassiter turned his body the other way leaving Shawn wondering what in earth prompted himself to say such a thing.


	2. Chapter 2

Lassiter woke up to the sound of a pen on paper and loud sucking.

Slowly, Lassiter opened his eyes to see Shawn looking over at him from his bed with a mouth full the “complementary candy” that he stole the other day. “Hey, Lassie! Nice to finally see your smiley-erm, grumpy face this morning.” the man said upon seeing his eyes.

“I wish I could say the same.” Lassiter retorted wearily. 

“Aww, come on Lassie. Don’t be that way. Hey, so I took the liberty of ordering some breakfast to come to our room so that we don’t have to ‘waste your precious time’ going out to get it ourselves, it should be here soon. In, oh, about 5 minutes or so” 

Lassiter grunted in response, rubbed at his sleepy eyes and tossed his fingers through his hair in effort to wake himself up a bit more. Shawn was stared at him while he did this until he focused his attention back to the television which was strangely on mute with subtitles in effort to keep quiet.

“So why are you up so early? Lassiter asked. “The sun’s not even completely out yet.”

“I was trying to get some work done by myself before you woke up.”

Lassiter was in awe. Shawn. Working? And working out of his own free will, no doubt. This was very strange. Something was gravely wrong with this situation. 

‘Better not question it though,’ Lassiter thought to himself, as he climbed out of bed in his boxer shorts and headed towards Shawn’s side of the room. “Let’s see what you have here then.”

“Not much yet, your Lassieness. Just a rough outline on what I’m going to say and some notes on the type of people I want to “read” for the demonstration part of the presentation. Not wise to “anger” the wrong person with a reading at a place where everyone is a hardened and skeptical cop like yourself. I mean, you certainly wouldn't like it if I asked the spirits about your deep, dark and wild secrets, now wouldn’t you?”

“Well you can’t because you aren’t a real psychic, Spencer.”

“I am!” the fake-psychic whined in defiance to his claim.

“No. You. Are. Not.”

“Yes. I. Am!”

“Fine then!” Lassiter said. “If your not fake read me right now. Read my deepest, darkest secrets. Come on, I’m letting you do it. I’ll even open up my mind for you. Now here you go, Spencer. Go on. Read me.”Lassiter grabbed Shawn’s hands and placed them on his own head. Shawn took a big breath and closed his eyes.

“No.”

“Excuse me,” asked Lassiter incredulously.

“I refuse.” Shawn said.

“You refuse cause you’re a fake.”

“Am not.”

“You are too.” Lassiter said with a accusatory laugh.

“Maybe I just don’t want to know your deep, dark secrets, alright! Maybe I like you just the way you are!” shouted Shawn, startling himself.

Lassiter quieted down and gave one of his signature mock smiles “Guess you can’t handle the truth then, eh Spencer?”

“I could if I wanted to. I just choose not to complicate this “friendship” by knowing your dirty little secret.” Shawn said, giving the sass right back to him.

“We're not friends though.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Lassie.” Shawn said patting the older man’s shoulder with a genuine smile. He then got up from the bed to head towards the shower, which he could finally use now that the other man was awake.

* * *

In the shower, Shawn thought about what Lassiter had just said to him. 

Were they friends? _He_ surely had thought that they were. They'd been through a lot together in the past few years, saved each other's lives even. Surely he meant _something_ to the detective. The cruel words had strangely hurt him more than he had expected. True, Lassiter had said those words on many occasions in the past, but as time went on, the phrase “we are not friends” slowly disappeared from his vocabulary until it vanished completely. Until now, that is.

* * *

“I’m not your friend.” As soon as the words left his mouth Lassiter regretted it. He had hurt Shawn. He could tell because his eyes had immediately betrayed the playful tone in his voice. Once he said it, all Lassiter could do was feel sorry about it. To be honest, he really didn’t mean it. Maybe they weren't exactly friends, per-say, but he did have respect for the man, despite how idiotic he could be. There was a present camaraderie between them at the very least. They weren’t exactly “friends” but weren’t exactly “not friends” either.

Lassiter’s thoughts were interrupted with a voice,“Room service”

“Er- come on in.” said Lassiter, moving towards the door and possibly his gun if he needed it.

“Oh my,” remarked the woman as soon as she walked in, eyeing Lassiter’s naked hairy chest. “Sorry,” she said correcting herself. “Here’s your breakfast, Mr Spencer, please enjoy.”

“Uh, thank you.” Lassiter said, suddenly realizing he was in only his boxers in front of a strange woman.

“No problem, Sir.” the woman said walking back towards the door.

Shawn materialized behind Lassiter as soon as she left and Lassiter wanted to jump from the shock of it.

“Smells delicious!” Shawn said making an audible sniffing noise, now completely back to his normal self. 

He was practically pressed against Lassiter back, looming over his shoulders to get a good smell of the food. It made Lassiter really nervous, so he scooted over, giving the other man more access to the food and less access to him.. ‘Great,’ Lassiter thought. ‘He’s just wearing a towel around his waist and I’m just wearing my boxers. I bet this looks so gay.”

Shawn was already snacking on some toast when Lassiter started to pay attention to him again. He noticed that the man was getting the crumbs on his bed with every bite he took. He wished that he could tell him to go to his own bed to eat, but he owed Shawn an apology and letting him stay on his bed was the only apology Spencer was going to get. Besides, his bed was already dirty anyway, no need to make _two_ beds full of crumbs.

* * *

Shawn looked at Lassiter, who ate his food efficiently like always. Without saying a word. It was a bit annoying sometimes, to a man like Shawn, who always enjoyed a good chat with a meal. At least the food was tasty enough, it was nice. What was even nicer was that Lassie let him stay on his bed. He was thankful for it, but the stupid idiot ruined it with his silence, leaving Shawn to keep his mind busy with thoughts about the nearest and strangest thing next to him: Lassiter. ‘He seems like an interesting enough person but sadly he lives in a shell,’ Shawn thought. He wanted to crack it open and peek inside. And sometimes he did get to peek inside of the secretive detective’s life. Sometimes, when he really observed, he could get a glimpse of a fun, less stressed, and nice to be around man. It was a rare treat indeed. He loved those moments when he saw a smile slip across his lips or a laugh or even his eyes brighten up with happiness. It was a treasure. Lassiter had so much potential. Throughout the whole trip, Shawn had been trying his best to be slightly-nicer to the detective than usual: he really did. Even though it wasn’t working 100%, his intentions were genuine. He wanted to make the trip easy on him. He knew this was supposed to be a 'vacation' for Lassiter. In all the years of knowing him, the time which he went to this convention was the only time he had seen Lassie come into work genuinely happy. And now he was here, on the detective’s sacred trip, running it for him. Trying to be nice wasn’t making the trip any easier. In-fact, it seemed to make Lassiter and Shawn himself more unbalanced than normal. Shawn had to revert back to his old ways to get their balance back in working order. So, with that, he decided to slack off once again and to tease Lassiter senselessly. It was classic and always worked, it was the only way that he could get _any_ sort of reaction out of the silent man, to get the fire back in him and rile him up. So, after he finished up his meal Shawn wiped his dirty hands on Lassiter’s bed spread, smiled, nonchalantly got up, let the towel around his waist casually slip off and hauled his naked ass back to his side of the room to get some clothes on.

* * *

Sensing movement, Lassiter looked up from his food and caught a glimpse of Shawn’s rear end. His mouth literally fell open, too shocked to even say anything. Was was Spencer doing?! Was Shawn coming on to him or something?! After 5 seconds of staring he remembered to look away.

* * *

‘It looked like Lassie didn’t see anything,’ Shawn mused in a happier spirit as he turned his head back at Lassie. ‘Oh well. Time to get dressed anyways.’

“So Lassie?” he said jumping into his pants.

“What?” said the detective, not turning his head.

“When you finish eating do you want to _finally_ try to get some work done? It’s really important work, as you informed me yesterday, but you haven’t even started yourself. What a shame. Even I have all this done” Shawn said holding out a big stack of papers that he did that morning and now had no intention to finish. He waved them at Lassie seductively for effect.

He’d seriously almost forgotten how fun was fun teasing him. Plus, It actually felt good to be the one asking for _Lassie_ to do work instead of it being the other way around. A smug and satisfied grin appeared on his face. Lassie really had quite a few things to do before he would be able to catch up with him.

“Just to let you know, Spencer," Lassiter started angrily "I _am_ done and I fully intend to get straight to work. And you don’t have to throw cheap backhanded comments at me like that to get your point across. Whoopty-fucking-do! You actually did some work before me for once in your life. Good job Spencer. Should I call up the President of the United States to tell him that a grown-ass man did the expected work of him without being asked? You did a very very god job there, you really did.”

“Hmmph. Why can't I ask you to do some work _one time_ when you're always ask me to! I’m just returning the favor, Lassie.”

“Because I’m a grown man who doesn't need a babysitter to get things done, Spencer.” 

“You know, sometimes I don't need people to tell me what to do.” Shawn said tossing his pile of work at Lassiter who caught it angrily. And with that, Shawn grabbed his phone from the charging station and responsibly pushed the empty breakfast cart in the hall on the way out of the hotel room.

Balance was restored.


	3. Chapter 3

Shawn walked down the hall of the hotel towards the elevator. He really wanted to get along with ‘Carlton’ as a friend but now he could see that he would never be more than just ‘Spencer’ to him. ‘Oh well,’ he thought. ‘Let's see what what I can do while pouty Lassie cools off.’

Shawn sauntered through the lobby and looked around at the various patrons. A lot of them had guns on them, cops from the convention. They couldn't possibly be any fun. Maybe going to the hotel’s pool would be more interesting. Except he had forgotten his swim trunks back at the room... His boxers might be able to pass for trunks but he better not risk it, especially now. There weren't many other options left for him other than walking around the streets surrounding the hotel. So that's what he did. There was $160 cash in his wallet that he ‘borrowed’ from Gus; a man could do a lot with $160.

Shawn passed by the dinner that he visited yesterday and decided to pop back in for a quick snack. He ordered a pineapple shake again.

“Back already?” asked the waitresses who served him and Lassiter the other day.

“Yup.” replied Shawn happily. “Not many places have pineapple shakes as good as this one!”

“I’m glad to hear that,” replied the waitresses. “Not many people actually like that flavor. Actually, we almost took it off the menu.”

“Please don't, It really would be a shame if you did. It's one of the best ones I've ever tasted and I order these practically everywhere I go.”

“Thank you, sir.” laughed the waitresses. “So where is that friend of yours who you were with yesterday?”

“Oh, Lassie? He's back at the hotel. And he doesn't really like pineapple shakes so decided against bringing him today.” Shawn said with a hint of regret.

“Oh I see…” said the woman. “Well I hope you enjoy your pineapple shake anyway, hun.”

“Thanks”

Shawn was feeling pretty good about himself that day, he ate what he wanted, did what the wanted and ran around the strange new town to his heart's content. True, the presentation was tomorrow, and he should be preparing for it but he wasn't _that_ worried about it to be completely honest. Also, it just wasn't his style to stress out and over prepare like Lassie who was probably driving himself crazy, cramped up in the little hotel room all by himself and tearing his hair out over the presentation. Poor man really didn't know how to have fun. Shawn really had tried to do this mini-vacation the ‘Lassie way’, working hard and staying in; but now Shawn was going to do it the Shawn way, having fun and spending money. Without Lassiter.

* * *

Back at the hotel room, Lassiter sat on his bed with his laptop relaxing gently on the comforter. What had just happened between him and Shawn? Since when did Shawn get so weird? Well, weirder than usual. Something was definitely bugging him. Lassiter had never seen Shawn get so serious and tell anybody off before. He hardly expected that it would ever happen to him of all people! It was slightly shocking. But, at least Shawn was out of his hair for the time being. Maybe now he could get some work done in peace. 

Lassiter typed away at his keyboard with a sense of purpose. He couldn’t believe that he had let Shawn get ahead of him with the presentation. The worst part was that Shawn’s notes were actually really good. At least it meant that he would get the presentation done sooner with a lot of spare time. Perhaps he could still indulge in his yearly massage and spa treatment when he was done... 

At 3:00 Lassiter was almost finished with his presentation, so he decided to go ahead and make a spa appointment for 5:00. That would still give him time to grab dinner and possibly a drink if he had time. He read over his speech two more times once he finished writing and was satisfied with his work. Somehow he had managed to write the perfect presentation in about half the time it usually took him. The words just seemed to flow right out of him. After triple-checking the speech and the slide-show he created, Lassiter saved the files on the computer and copied them on a USB drive to make sure nothing could go wrong. It was now time to go downstairs to get some food. He ordered himself a plate of steak and fries, adding a dark lager from the bar at the very last moment for the hell of it. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had such a nice evening where everything went practically perfect. The meat just melted in his mouth and beer gave him a slight buzz. He eventually ordered another one and gulped it down before heading off to the spa room.

The building was quiet; nobody was in the changing rooms at all. That made Lassiter feel more at ease. He stripped off his clothes and put them in a locker, grabbing a towel to cover up his naked body with. He had ordered a luxury mud bath followed by a massage. And before he could get in the spa’s mud bath, he had to rinse off in the showers, ‘same as a pool, I guess,’ he said to himself, dropping the towel. After a quick rinse, he walked to the mud room, there was already some other policeman being tended to by a lady. Another woman helped him in the mud bath and she proceeded to massage his face. The whole world melted away. Hot, cleansing mud seeped between his toes and fingers, enveloping every inch of his body. Today was really a good day for him. The lady who was working on the other man then switched her attention to him to give him a facial. Lassiter ended up with a soothing mud mask and cucumbers on his eyes.

“Thank you, Ma’am,” Lasiter mumbled as the woman pulled her hands off his face after placing the last cucumber on. “I really needed that.”

“No problem, Sir. I’ll leave you to enjoy the rest of your session,” she paused and then addressed the other man in the room. “Mr. Spencer, do you want more cucumbers on your eyes before I leave? Something seems to have happened to -”

“No need, Jessie,” Shawn interrupted swallowing the cucumbers. “Thank you for the lovely time, It was nice chatting with you.”

Lassiter bolted upright, knocking his own vegetables off his eyes. Shawn Spencer was naked in the mud bath right next to him.

“What the _hell_ are you doing here, Spencer?” Lassiter seethed.

“Just relaxin’,” Shawn replied innocently. “What are you doing here Lassie-pants, or should I say Lassie no-pants?” His eyebrows waggled suggestively. “I thought you’d still be busy with your presentation still.” 

“I. Finished. Early. I’m here because I plan a trip to the spa almost everytime I come down here ” Lassiter stated matter-of-factly, not wanting to explain or admit that it was because of Shawn that he was able to fully relax now. 

“That's cool,” Shawn replied, splashing his fingers in the mud like a kid playing in a bathtub. “I’ve never been to one of these mud things before and thought it would be cool to try one since I have the money to try it for once.” 

“You better not be wasting the Department’s or my money.” Lassiter warned. 

“I’m not. No need to worry your pretty little head,” Shawn replied reaching over to pat the detective’s head. 

“Good. Now if you don’t mind, I suggest you finish up your bath and get out of here so I can actually enjoy this.” 

“Aww, come on Lassie! Don’t be that way. I really didn’t expect you to be here, besides I got here first and if any of us should be leaving, it should be you.” 

“But I found this place years ago, so technically, I was here first.” Lassiter retorted.

“Point taken, but i’m not leaving. Guess we’ll have to share then.” 

“Ugh.” 

“I prooomiisee I won’t make any noise,” Shawn said. 

“Fine. But I better not hear a peep from you.” 

“Peep Peep.” Shawn said, mimicking a baby bird. 

Lassiter gave a poisonous glare and Shawn sunk back into the mud in silence. 

* * *

Not 15 minutes later, Shawn opened up his mouth again. “So I’ve been thinking about something a lot the past few days.” he said seriously. 

“What’s that?” Lassiter mumbled, completely engrossed in the feeling of the bath. 

“I've been thinking,” he paused, taking a exaggerated breath in “Why do you hate me so much? I think that you genuinely hate me. Like, you never want me near you, you always try your best to avoid me all the time. Anytime I try to touch you, you have the worst physical reaction ever and your face goes all sour. Even when I’m just being nice to you, you look disgusted by me... I used to think your hatred was just an act to keep up your tough-guy appearance but now I’m not so sure. ” 

Lassie was taken aback by the question. He had really fucked up badly if Shawn really thought this about him. Serious-talking Shawn was something that frightened him and he didn’t know how to deal with it. He wanted the other Shawn back, the one who came into the police station like he owned the place, the one who had to constantly make jokes, the one who played the fool even though he was capable of acting like a actual adult. He liked Shawn bugging him sometimes, getting him to try new things out of his comfort zone. How could he tell Shawn that not only he didn’t hate his stupid personality, but loved it? 

“Look, Spencer. I really don’t hate you, Ok? I just get annoyed by you sometimes. It happens. I don’t hate you or anything like that. I don’t mean to-... I just-.. How do I say this? I’m not trying to treat you any more harshly that I do everyone else, Ok? Please don’t ever take it personally. I really don’t hate you no matter how much it might seem that I do.” 

Shawn sighed. “But you don’t like me, do you? I’m just a nuisance to you that you can barely tolerate on your best days.” 

Lassiter took in a sharp breath. He really didn't want to talk about this but Shawn looked really sad, like a depressed little puppy-dog. How could he not realize how big of a part of Lassiter’s life he was? Things were getting really personal really fast. 

“Shawn.” Lassiter decided to use his first name in this instance. “I don’t hate you, Ok? I’m just not a “touchy-feely” person. Does it really matter if I like you or not? I don’t like a lot of people.” 

“It does matter,” Shawn said softly. “It matters because I like you Carlton. I really kinda like you a lot more than I should. And if I’m annoying you too much, I’m really sorry about that. I don’t want to annoy you but I get really excited and hyper everytime i’m around you and I can’t help it. I just want to make sure that you don’t hate me for it because if you do I want to stop If you do I think I should go away.” 

Lassiter took another deep breath,“Shawn, please don’t say that. It’s true that I _do_ think you’re annoying most of the time, but I don’t want you to go away or anything. I would be a bit sad if you left. You’ve somehow weaseled your way into my life and whether I like it or not you’re part of it now. I do like you. Don’t you dare repeat this conversation to anyone ever again or i’ll shoot you.” 

Shawn gave a huge smile and flung his hands out of the mud in attempt to hug Lassiter. 

“We’re naked in the mud, Spencer. Stop.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm at the point where I can make this actually gay. IF I go for the gay, _how_ gay?


	4. Chapter 4

Lassiter and Shawn sat quietly in the mud for about 15 more minutes before Shawn started to become antsy and shift around in the tub. Lassiter was trying to pretend to be asleep but Shawn wasn’t making it easy for him. He really was making a lot of noise with whatever he was doing. Just as Lassiter was about to open up his mouth and comment about the noise, Shawn got up. Lassiter could hear the squelching sound of the mud as he struggled to crawl out of the tub with no success.

“Gah. This stuff’s everywhere!” Shawn said, flicking the mud all over the room in attempt to clean himself.

“Hey! Watch it. That almost landed in my eye!” Lassiter said, trying to get up from the mud bath as well. He didn’t want to be a target of the muck that Shawn was slinging around everywhere. Plus, it was almost time for his massage anyway. It really was difficult to move his body out of the mud. It felt heavy on him, almost like concrete. By the time Lassiter got his first foot free and out of the bath he realized something; he had gotten out _way_ too soon. He should have waited a few minutes. Or at least until Shawn was done cleaning himself off because now the two of them would have to take a shower together. In the same room. Alone.

Lassiter yanked his body out of the mud and moved quickly towards the showering station in the next room over. Shawn was still in the mud room, flinging the mud off himself wildly. ‘Maybe I can get myself showered and cleaned off before Spencer joins me,’ Lassiter thought in vain. As soon as his hand touched the shower nozzle, Shawn came bounding in the room. What made it worse was that Shawn decided that it was perfectly acceptable to use the shower right next to him! “There were two other options. Two! But of course he had to choose the one next to me,” Lassiter grumbled. He would have to make the shower as quick as possible for both their sakes.

Unfortunately for Lassiter, the mud did not wash off easily. He scrubbed at his arms vigorously trying to get the mud off without success. It was his body hair that really was latching on to all the mud and making it impossible to get off. He cursed himself and his hairiness. Just then, Lassiter heard Shawn groan. He turned around to see Shawn in the shower next to him in absolute euphoria. He looked borderline pornographic. The mud streamed down the lines of his body in the most perfect way. His head was tilted up into the water and his eyes were closed while his whole body looked relaxed and loose. Lassiter noticed Shawn’s body and cheeks were tinted a light pink from the heat of the water. Just as Lassiter’s eyes started to wander down further, he turned his head at the last possible second. He shouldn’t be doing this. He shouldn’t be ogling Shawn when he was vulnerable and unaware.This whole thing was wrong; he shouldn’t be finding Shawn attractive at all.

* * *

Shawn came into the shower room greeted by a pleasant view of Lassiter’s backside. The man looked absolutely uncomfortable and rigid. Shawn smiled to himself and walked into the stall next to Lassiter, trying to rouse some more emotion out of the man. They had just had their first heart- to-heart conversation and he felt great about it. Shawn turned on the water and the hot spray immediately engulfed his whole body. He let out an instinctual whimper of pleasure. He could tell that Lassiter was probably annoyed by this but he was in such a good mood that he really didn’t care. More groans escaped his mouth as he turned up the heat a bit. This was the most relaxed his body had ever felt in ages; and he wasn’t even as stressed as Lassiter all the time. He could see why Lassie made a habit of doing this.

After 30 more seconds of soaking Shawn turned off the faucet. He then got out of the shower, dried himself off with a white fluffy towel and then headed back to the changing room in high spirits. 

On his way out, he passed by Lassiter, who was still standing under the shower more immobile than ever. Lassiter had stopped scrubbing himself and just stood there under the water with his back turned. “You alright there, Lassie?” Shawn asked. Lassiter didn’t answer right away and then mumbled something inaudible back. Shawn took it as a yes and continued back to the locker room to change. 

Once he went back up to his room, Shawn put on a clean pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. It felt icky wearing dirty and stinky clothes after the amazing shower he had just had. It was still early in the night, but with his muscles relaxed, Shawn didn’t feel like going out to eat dinner. Thankfully, the hotel was still doing room service so he ordered some food while slumped on his bed feeling completely like jelly. After watching 30 minutes of some weird documentary, the food arrived. Pizza, macaroni & cheese, spaghetti and a liter of soda sat on the little trolley and Shawn graciously ate. When he was done eating, he felt so satisfied that he could die. Today was perhaps the best day of his life. Fun, good food, pampering, more good food and Lassie saying that he liked him. The last part was mostly what made Shawn smile the most. He wished that Lassie liked him more than as ‘just a friend,’ but he would take what he could. With one last lazy bite of pizza, Shawn began to drift off to sleep with a contented grin on his face.

* * *

Lassiter stood under the cold spray of the shower for 8 minutes until he was sure that Shawn was done in the changing room. He had some thinking to do. Nothing that happened in the last few days made any sense. Everything was changing. No doubt about it, he was beginning to have feelings for Shawn. Maybe it was a midlife crisis? His thoughts about the man couldn’t possibly change so quickly. But had they changed quickly? Lassiter remembered the first time he laid eyes on Shawn and how his heart skipped a beat. Unfortunately, soon after their first encounter he had learned about Shawn’s personality and later about him being a fake psychic. It was then that he cut off all his feelings about Shawn for good. He told himself that he couldn’t have romantic feelings for such a man like that, despite how gorgeous he might be. Still, Lassiter’s feelings threatened to resurface every once-in-awhile but he had always successfully shut them down. Being out of his element let him revisit these “unwanted feelings.” It took almost looking at Shawn’s privates and an 8-minute shower for him to realize that maybe his feelings weren't ‘unwanted’ anymore. 

When Lassiter heard the door to the changing room close, he turned off the water and got ready for his massage. As soon as he stepped out, Lassiter was terrified. He was actually falling for Shawn. Shawn of all people! The fact that Shawn was a man wasn’t the thing that scared him. His mom was a lesbian and he himself identified as pan-sexual. Shawn’s gender didn’t matter, it was the fact that it was _Shawn_. Shawn, whom he had know for years; Shawn, the man who always stole his cases and showed him up by solving them; Shawn the idiot he saw every day and tried to ignore. Lassiter sat with his head between his legs for awhile before he made his way to his scheduled message session.

The massage itself was pleasant. A nice, petite woman worked his muscles and he finally allowed himself to relax and try to forget about Shawn for a few minutes. When the massage was over, Lassiter sluggishly got up and made his way to the hotel room.

When Lassiter entered the door with his key card, he found Shawn asleep with a pizza in his hand. He didn’t want to wake him up. Shawn looked so relaxed and comfortable the way he was. Lassiter stared for a few moments before starting to clean up the mess. Skillfully, Lassiter slipped the pizza from Shawn’s hand, which twitched at its removal. Fortunately for them both, Shawn didn’t wake up in the process. He’d just let him sleep. They both had a big day ahead of them tomorrow. 

Lassiter got dressed for bed and then grabbed an extra blanket for Shawn. He draped the blanket on Shawn’s body, lingering above his sleeping figure. The sudden urge to curl up next to Shawn and kiss him came over Lassiter. Mad at himself, Lassiter threw the blanket on Shawn’s body harshly. Shawn still didn’t stir. Lassiter got into bed himself and glared angrily at Shawn’s sleeping body. Tomorrow would probably be the last day they could both enjoy each other’s company. They had to go back to the station and back to the way it had been before. As much as Lassiter wanted to be with Shawn, he knew it could never happen. His actions had consequences. Still, Lassiter would remember the pleasantries of this outing forever.

* * *

Shawn woke up sweating and needing to pee. It was dark outside and Lassiter was already back and in his bed, asleep. Shawn went to the toilet, washed his hands and went back to his bed. It wasn’t until he made his way back to his bed that he realized his mess was cleaned up and there was an extra blanket on his bed that must have been covering him up. Shawn’s heart swelled with joy, Lassie really did care. Never had he thought that Lassiter was capable of something so kind. 

Shawn looked around the room in the darkness. It really was hot in there. Shawn took of his sweats and t-shirt he that he had been wearing and crawled underneath a single sheet with just his boxers on. It had just gotten too hot for clothing. He’d wake up before Lassiter anyway. And it wasn’t that abnormal for two male friends to be shirtless with each other, he reasoned. Shawn laid down on his bed, facing Lassie. He watched the man’s chest rise and fall in deep breathes. 

When Lassie was asleep, his always furrowed brows relaxed and looked peaceful. Shawn liked that. Soon, Shawn drifted to sleep yet again.

* * *

The law enforcement convention was set to open up at 8:00 A.M. At 6:30. Lassier woke up with the sun streaming into the room. Shawn was still asleep and sprawled on the bed like a starfish with nearly all the covers kicked off. Lassiter thought that he looked like an utter idiot. Somehow he managed not only to get all the covers off of himself, but also his clothes. Lassiter’s face reddened the more he stared at Shawn and his boxers to be more exact. He could see the outline of his cock. Sharing a room with Shawn was just as distracting as sharing a room with an attractive woman, maybe even worse. Lassiter began to get dressed and tried to be as quiet as possible, hoping not to rouse Shawn and go through the discomfort of them being too “exposed” with each other.

Lassiter put on his gun in its holster on top of his white dress shirt for the day. Today he would be representing his whole department and he had to be prepared for it. Lassiter messed around on his phone for 10 minutes, trying to be quiet and then he decided that he was overdue for a shave. He foamed up his face and pulled out his travel kit. When he looked at his face in the mirror, he noticed that there were apparent dark bags underneath his eyes. He didn’t look too well but there was nothing he could do about it so he rinsed his face off with hot water and went back to shaving. When he looked up into the mirror again, Shawn suddenly appeared behind him. Lassiter’s hands jerked towards his gun, almost cutting himself with his razor in the process. 

“Christ, Spencer! Don’t sneak up on a cop like that! I almost shot you!”

“Almost shooting me and actually shooting me are completely different things. If I had a nickle for all the times I've almost been shot I-” 

“Save it, Spencer. I really don’t want to hear any bullshit from you today are we clear? ” Lassiter said, annoyed.

“Mmmhm,” Shawn nodded, not concerned. “Ima brush my teeth now, ok?”

Shawn bumped Lassiter with his shoulder and he took a few steps to the side, allowing the man to squeeze into his space. They both stood next to each other in perfect harmony, Lassiter shaving and Shawn brushing his teeth. When he was done, Lassiter wiped his face with a clean towel and allowed Shawn to take over the sink. Shawn finished up soon after and then got dressed. The two then left hotel together in Lassiter’s car to get breakfast.

“Where do you want to go?” Lassiter asked.

“Dunno. What’s open this early?” Shawn replied

“There’s one place I know of” Lassiter said with a smile.

“What is it?”

“It’s a surprise... but I’m only taking you if you promise to be good today.” Lassiter’s voice suddenly got serious. “Today means a lot to me. Please don't do anything to embarrass me or the department. I’m not joking.”

“I know.” Shawn said with equal seriousness.

Minutes passed and soon the two pulled up to a McDonalds drive through. Both Shawn and Lassiter were trying to conceal smiles.

“What do you want?” Lassiter asked.

“I’ll have 2 McRibbs and and a shake.” Shawn said, exploding with happiness.


	5. Chapter 5

“Ok, Shawn. Now that we’ve eaten, we have about a half-hour before the law enforcement convention opens up. You know what you're going to say for our presentation, right?”

“Yup!” replied Shawn between sloppy bites of his 2nd McRIb.

“God, I hope this goes well,” Lassiter mumbled out loud through gritted teeth.

“Don’t worry about it, Lassie! I believe in you.” Shawn reassured him happily.

“It’s not _myself_ that I’m worried about,” Lassiter said as he rolled his eyes towards Shawn’s direction, indicating to the man with sauce dripping from his chin that he was the person that Lassiter was worried about. 

Shawn picked queue right away, “Hey. You realize that this is the 3rd time today that you’ve openly insulted me, right?” Shawn asked.

“Sorry. It’s actually a bit hard for me _not_ to insult someone like you.”

Shawn gave him a look.

“I’m just a bit stressed that’s all,” Lassiter defended, feeling slightly bad about his previous comments.

“Understandable, I guess.” Shawn conceded.

“So what exactly are _you_ going to do in your demonstration today, hmm, Shawn?”

“I’m going to ‘read’ a random guy in the audience and be super impressive about it,” Shawn grinned.

Lassiter rolled his eyes. “Just please don’t expose any police chief's secret affair with a mistress or anything like that.”

“Fine, I won’t then. Is embezzlement or robbery ok to expose?” Shawn asked.

“Only if it’s 101% legitimate, I suppose…”

At that moment, the two men pulled up to the venue. A few seconds after they parked, the lines to get into the building started to move.

“Wow, this thing’s a lot bigger than I expected,” Shawn gulped, sizing up both the crowd and the building.

“Yes, that’s what I've been trying to tell you!” Lassiter said. “This event is a big deal in the police officer’s circle. A bad presentation here can ruin your career. One year a guy from San Francisco wearing a brown suit was-”

“Hey, do you think they are going to have one of those refreshment tables for the speakers. I like when they do that. Or gift baskets. That’s nice too,” Shawn interrupted.

“And here I thought you actually were starting to care,” Lassiter said.

Shawn was already off, shoving his way through the lines ready to explore. He was easy for Lassiter to spot through the sea of suits because he was wearing his traditional ¾ sleeve polo shirt accompanied by jeans. 

‘It wouldn’t hurt to let him explore by himself for awhile while’, Lassiter thought as he waded into the back of the crowd on official police business. The convention would probably be too boring for him anyway.

* * *

Shawn finally got to the entrance of the building after a lot of skillful pushing and maneuvering.

“A _psychic_?” asked the lady at the door when Shawn told her who he was and why she should let him in. “I don’t think so. The Santa Barbara police department would never have a psychic in their employ. Is this a joke, Sir?”

“No, my name is right there on the list,” Shawn pointed to the paper spread before her “It even matches my I.D badge that you have right here and everything.”

The lady’s demeanor immediately changed “So, I see, Sir. Sorry about my rudeness. Enjoy your time here,” she gave him his photo I.D. badge and let him enter the building.

Shawn gave the lady a wink and proceeded to shove his way through the throng of people accumulated at the door. Many angry police officers shouted from behind him. Once he got inside, the people attending the convention started to spread out and go into various different rooms in the building. Shawn decided to follow the man nearest himself and sat down in the back of the room that he had entered. A suited man with a thick mustache walked into the room and began talking about gun safety or something similar to the subject. Shawn couldn’t find it in himself to care, so he walked out shortly after and slumped against the nearest wall.

There wasn't a lot to do for a civilian to do at such a place but Shawn certainly found ways to entertain himself.

First, there was a loose string on his shirt that he played with for a while. Second, he switched over to a game on his phone, then after that he found a discarded pen on the floor and that’s when all the fun began.

Shawn drew a stick-figure family on all 10 of his fingers and then proceeded to give himself a bad-ass arm tattoo with the pen.

* * *

“What the _hell_ are you doing?” Lassiter said as he spotted Shawn on the floor doodling on himself.

“Keeping busy and not causing a scene,” Shawn replied.

“I can see that,” Lassiter said, flustered, “but you can’t possibly give a lecture with me looking like that.”

Shawn looked down at his marked up arm and his partially un-weaved flannel. There was also a few stains on his shirt from the barbecue sauce that was on McRibs he ate earlier. “No, I suppose not, huh?”

“Come on then,” Lassiter said, pulling Shawn to his feet.

“Where are we going, Lassie?”

“I have a spare dress-shirt and alternate suit-jacket that I always keep in my vehicle. You’re going to have to wear it to cover up that mess you have on your arm. How did you even get your shirt like that so quickly?”

“Well, you see-” Shawn started, but Lassiter gave him a “I really don’t care look” and Shawn receded.

“Well, I guess this is for the better,” Lassiter said when they finally got to the car. “The clothes you usually wear look so sloppy and unprofessional. Maybe with this people will take you a bit more seriously; I don’t think I’ve seen you wear a dress-shirt that wasn’t before.”

Shawn unbuttoned his flannel and then pulled off his shirt in the parking lot in front of everyone.

“Christ, Spencer! Do you really have to do that here?”

Shawn thought a moment and then replied, “Nope.”

When Shawn finally got Lassiter’s shirt and jacket completely on, Lassiter thought that he looked like an entirely different man.

“I feel like a model named Brad,” Shawn complained.

Lassiter gave Shawn a meticulously slow inspection from head to toe. “I actually think you look good, Spencer” Lassiter commented, raising his eyebrows in half-disbelief of himself.

“Really? I feel ridiculous. Are you sure It doesn't look weird with my denim and tennis shoes?”

“It really shouldn’t work, but it looks great on you. You pull the look off,” Lassiter replied. Shawn would always be the man who always wore polo shirts and plaid to him, but seeing him in his own clothing and dressed up a bit was a nice treat.

“If you say so,” Shawn said with a frown.

The two men then made their way into the building again; Shawn stayed near Lassiter, this time. A couple of heads turned their way. The two really did look like a pair of partners ready to rock the conference.


	6. Chapter 6

Shawn and Lassiter walked around the convention for a couple of hours to kill time. 

“Is it okay for us to set up now?” Shawn asked Lassiter while they walked down the crowded hallways together, anticipating their presentation.

“Yeah, I think it’s fine,” Lassiter said looking at his watch. “The other group just finished up in the room about 15 minutes ago.” 

As the two men made their way to the room, the last few stragglers waked out.

“Do you have a slideshow or something I can display for the audience?” a projectionist asked Shawn as he entered the room with Lassiter a few steps behind him. Shawn blinked nervously as a reply.

“Right here, buddy,” Lassiter said, tossing a USB stick towards the man’s general direction. 

“Thanks,” the projectionist said, catching the device and walking back to his work station.

The large room was eerily quiet. “Nervous?” Lassiter asked Shawn with a crack of a smile, breaking the silence.

“Nervous? Me?” Shawn laughed ridiculously. “No way. Heh. Are _you_ nervous though, Lassie?”

Lassiter’s face twitched a little. Of course he was nervous. Everyone that he knew in his profession was going to be here! If he fucked up this presentation, everyone in the whole state of California- no, the west-coast, would ridicule him and he could never show his face anywhere in the area ever again! “No,” Lassiter answered coolly.

“You’ll be fine,” Shawn said, putting his hand on the detective’s shoulder giving him a smile as if he knew, despite his response.

“Yeah,” Lassiter replied, reassuring himself as much as Shawn.

* * *

“Okay,” the projectionist boomed from another end of the building. “I’m ready to do a quick run-through. The mics should be hooked up already so if you can put them on and test them, that’d be great!” Shawn & Lassiter complied. “It also looks like your presentation is compatible and working well, if you want to run through some of it real quick, you can go ahead.”

Lassiter turned around and saw his minimalist slideshow on all the screens behind him and took in a breath of air.

“In 20 minutes they're going to start letting people in,” the projectionist warned as Lassiter didn't say anything for a few minutes.

Lassiter snapped back into focus. “Oh, right,well, I’m just going to go through the introduction of that's fine with you.” Lassiter got a thumbs up as a response. “Ladies and Gentlemen...” he began to say slowly.

The practice run went well; both Lassiter and Shawn managed not to make too many noticeable mistakes. The two exchanged smiles and then were asked to sit down and wait for the room to fill up so they could begin their presentation for real this time.

* * *

Many suits made their way through the hall and sat down. Lassiter could feel his chest restricting as he tried to fight off his nervousness. He glanced over at Shawn. As always, the man looked completely at ease and oblivious to what was happening; Lassiter was thankful that one of them was doing fine. The calmness on Shawn’s face somehow put him at ease while the rest of the crowd walked into the room with furrowed brows and mocking looks

The keynote speaker took stage when the room was filled up, said a little introduction and then introduced Shawn and Lassiter as guests of honor from the Santa Barbara police department. 

Nervous claps filled the room as soon as the two took center stage. Lassiter could see the doubt in their eyes, even he himself wouldn't clap for a so-called ‘psychic.’

“Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentleman. I’m Head Detective Carlton Lassiter from the Santa Barbara Police Department and this is our associate, Shawn Spencer. Today Mr. Spencer and I are going to discuss the benefits of using a psychic during an investigation.” Lassiter went through his slideshow and shared a couple of unclassified public cases with the audience. People actually looked to be in awe that the strange cases in question actually managed to get solved. Shawn chimed in with some clarification every once-in-awhile, when Lassiter got stuck, to make some points of the cases more clear. Somehow, Shawn and Lassiter managed to present their insane topic in a way that didn’t sound too crazy and impossible.They were a good team. Most of the audience gave wild claps of approval when it ended.

“Any questions?” Lassiter asked after the applause ended.

“I have one,” a man way in the back of the crowd said, standing up. “That presentation and explanations did seem legitimate but I still have my doubts, as probably a lot of people in this room do. No doubt this man _did_ help solve some extremely difficult cases for you, but can you actually prove that he’s really a psychic and not some lucky amateur detective?”

Lassiter gulped then turned to Shawn who had a cocky smirk on his face. Almost as if he were waiting for someone to challenge or question him. “Certainly,” Shawn replied. “Would you like to come on stage so I can get a better reading?”

The man shrugged and made his way to the front.

As soon as he got closer to the stage Lassiter froze. The man was none other than the Los Angeles Chief of Police, Mr. Hansen. He was probably the most important person attending the entire convention, everyone knew him and his opinion had a lot of weight. If Shawn fucked up right now, the SBPD’s reputation definitely would be ruined forever.

“Chief Hansen, I-” Lassiter started.

“Hey,my man. Can you stand over here?” Shawn interrupted. 

The most important police chief in all of California moved two feet to his left as he was told, indulging in Shawn.. “Okay, good,”Shawn spoke, clapping his two hands together. Can you put this microphone headset thing on? Thanks. “Will you tell all of us who you are before I start the reading?”

The man laughed, thinking that Shawn was still joking with him. “I’m Chief Hansen of the LAPD.”

Shawn was still unphased. “Alright, so you're a public figure and I bet there are a lot of news articles or papers about you. What would you say if I told you I know something that nobody else in this room knows about you?”

“Try me,” Chief Hansen smirked.

“And you’re completely fine if I disclose private information then?”

“Certainly.”

“You sure?” The man nodded again. Shawn closed his eyes, held one hand out in the direction of Chief Hansen and raised the other to his temple as he had done countless of times in the past.

“A wife and two kids,” Shawn said.

“Anyone could know that.”

“Shhhhh,” Shawn replied, covering Chief Hansen’s lips with his spare index finger while also keeping his eyes closed. “I’m not done yet. The spirits are telling me that your lips frequently cheat,” 

“Cheat?” The man questioned.

“Yes.”Shawn replied moving his finger around Chef Hansen’s lips, making the man feel rather uncomfortable and angry. “It’s getting clearer now. You have the lips of a cheater.”

“Excuse me! I’ll have you know that I would never cheat on my-”

“Doctor!” Shawn shouted. “I see you in a doctor’s office. He's telling you to stay away from red meats. Yesterday you ate an 18-, no, 22oz sirloin tip steak, rare.” The man blinked. “You have a serious heart condition and you’ve been keeping it secret from everyone up to this point in time. You have even had at least 2 mild strokes, it seems. The doctor had told you that no red meats should pass through your lips and that you should be taking your medication, which you also have skipped on a few occasions.”

Chief Hansen’s face turned white and he started blubbering, “I don’t- You can’t prove- Why did you have to announce it in front of everyone like _that_!”

A nervous laugh escaped Shawn’s lips, “Well that was the only thing I could say that could prove my powers for sure. Besides, I don’t think that this is something you should be hiding from your loved ones.”

“It was not your place to decide that, psychic,” Chief Hansen spat.

“No, It’s not, but I have a habit of sticking my nose where it shouldn’t be. I can assure you, my intentions are admirable,” ” Shawn admitted with a somewhat sad smile.

Shawn put his finger to his head again, “My psychic senses tell me your condition is something that you have been hiding because you don’t want the people around you to worry about you. You have a facade in place and you can’t break it after all this time. People expect certain things from you,” Shawn made eye-contact with Lassiter as he said this and then continued, “They should worry about you, though. I can tell that now that people around you know about your condition, they will do all they can to help you.”

“You-”

“The reason I had to expose you in the first place is because I’m helping out someone I care about, you see.” Shawn’s eyes shifted towards Lassiter. “Sorry.”

Chief Hansen gave a sad frown, tore off the microphone and made his way off the stage.

“Well that went now,” Shawn remarked.

“And that concludes our presentation,” Lassiter said, leading Shawn off stage with his hand on his shoulder. Both men took off their microphone headsets and exited the room at a fast pace.

“I sincerely think that presentation did go well…..despite that last thing,” Shawn said again as they went through the hall. “Exposing him probably was the best thing in the long-run. I don’t think he has much time left and it would have been a shock to his family to find him dead in the kitchen one day. His family and workers might have things to say to him that they wouldn’t have otherwise said. I mean, what would you do if you found out me or Juliet were going to die tomorrow. ”

“I don’t know,” Lassiter admitted, “Nothing, I guess. As a cop I have to live everyday like it could be my last.”

Shawn frowned, as if he wanted to say something but held himself back.

“You did a good presentation, though, Shawn. Thanks a bunch for not messing it up. I bet everyone in the LAPD is going to be talking about it for days.” A rare grin made its way on Lassiter’s face and he tousled Shawn's hair, lovingly to thank the man. After weeks of stress worrying about this trip with Shawn, Lassiter finally let himself relax. The trip hadn't been nearly as bad as he expected; infact, he almost enjoyed it . Even Shawn’s company.

“So what do we do now that we’re done?”

“Now?” Lassiter questioned. He hadn't really thought about what he was going to do with his time now that he didn’t have anything to do. “Now I want to check out some of the competition and then we can celebrate, sound good?”

Shawn and Lassiter sat through a few lectures from rival police stations. None matched the greatness of their presentation. At dusk, the two men left the convention hall and got into Lassiter’s car to drive back to the hotel. Lassiter told Shawn that he would take him out for some celebratory drinks. On the drive back ,Shawn googled ‘near by bars and clubs’ on his phone and narrowed it down to 2, which were both walking distance from the hotel.

The men went up to their hotel room and dropped off some of their things. Shawn removed the fancy jacket that Lassiter had lent him and changed his shirt to one of his own. He then put on a bit of body spray when Lassiter wasn’t looking. 

Shawn chuckled, mentally congratulating himself for spotting Chief Hansen eating a steak yesterday when he visited the diner. He hadn't known who the man was at the time, he looked like any middle-aged lonely man eating by himself. The only reason Shawn took any notice of him in the first place was because of the delicious looking steak the man had sitting on his plate. It almost prompted him to order one himself. When Shawn stared at the steak for a little longer he saw the man take out a bottle of heart pills, look at it and then put it back in his pocket. He recognized them from a old case that he and Gus had consulted on about a month ago. Gus had explained in detail what the pills were for and the other symptoms a man with such an ailment might have. The suspect for the case did not actually have heart problems or need the pills in the first place. Shawn thought the information to be useless. He smiled, that information really came in handy now, he would have to thank Gus sometime.

“You ready?” Lassiter asked, rolling up his shirt sleeves.

“Hell yeah!” Shawn shouted back.

* * *

It was slightly chilly when the two men got outside. “Hurry up,” Lassier shouted at Shawn, who was lollygagging like a curious toddler behind him.

“Coming!” Shawn shouted, right at Lassiter’s heels.

The two entered the crowded club and found themselves immediately separated by the sheer amount of people collected into the small room. Lassiter reached out and grabbed hold of Shawn’s hand in attempt to stay together. He yanked Shawn towards him a little too fast and almost spilt somebody’s drinks as Shawn drew close to Lassiter’s body. Eventually, the two men reached the bartender and ordered themselves a few drinks. All was well and good until their second drink.

“Well, hello there,” Shawn flirted at a woman who crossed his path on the way to his seat.

“Can you control yourself for 10 seconds, Spencer!” Lassiter scolded.

The woman smiled and continued on her way. Shawn quickly downed his drink and made his way to the dance floor to follow the woman.

Lassiter sighed, drank his own drink, and then headed back to the bar two more new ones.


	7. Chapter 7

Lassiter sat down alone with two new scotches, then tried to pick Shawn out of the crowd of dancing people. 

After a few bodies moved around, Lassiter spotted Shawn dancing in a sexual manner near the woman that he had followed onto the dancefloor earlier. The man really knew how to make a fool out of himself, Lassiter thought as he sat back in his seat, downing his drink and watching Shawn intensely. 

Shawn caught Lassiter's gaze then beckoned him to join him the dance floor, “Come over here,” he mouthed.

“Me?”

“Yes you!” Shawn gestured from afar. 

“Why?”

“To dance, you silly goose!” Shawn then imitated what he thought to be Lassiter's uncoordinated dancing and called Lassiter over to him again. Lassiter raised a skeptical eyebrow in response. 

Shawn flashed a smile.

“No way,” Lassiter replied, shaking his head for emphasis.

Shawn went back to his dancing and when the song ended he waved goodbye to the woman and came back over to where Lassiter was sitting alone. “The next song then. Dance the next song with me.”

“No, Spencer.”

“Why?”

“Because honestly, I’m a bit buzzed and don’t want to make a fool out of myself. There’s probably cops from the convention here who are just waiting for me to screw up now.”

“Do you always have to be so paranoid?” Shawn asked.

“Yes. It's who I am, you know that.”

Shawn’s face creased in confusion. “Fair enough. But you are you really going to let them ruin such a fun evening? I was just starting to like you a lot, Lassie. You owe me at least this after my good behavior these last few days. Not to mention to thank me for my ‘miraculous psychic gifts’ that made you look good in front of everyone earlier.”

“By destroying the life of one of California’s greatest police chiefs?”

“Once again, my dear Lassie, I merely stated the facts and did what the spirits wanted me to do. It was not my fault.”

Lassiter let out a deep sigh. “Fine. I guess I _do_ owe you one.”

“So you’ll dance with me!?” Shawn squeaked joyfully while wrapping his arms around Lassiter in an excited embrace.

“Yes, but only if you stop doing _that_!” Lassiter said in fake disgust.

* * *

When the next song came on Lassiter reluctantly got up with Shawn, who lead them onto the dancefloor. The two men stood awkwardly and unsure for a few moments before Shawn began to dance to the beat of the music. 

“Uh, I don’t really dance much-” Lassiter started.

“Come on, I’ve totally seen you dance before.”

“When?

“Oh, you know. That one time during that one case....”

“I don’t seem to recall.”

“Even if I haven’t seen you dance _before_ , which I’m sure I have, I’m at least going to see you dance _now_ ,” Shawn smiled proudly.

Angrily, Lassiter started to dance as he had promised. He could feel Shawn watching him. 

The dance floor got more crowded as the song went on, causing the two men to dance closer together. “This isn't weird at all, right,?” Shawn laughed, looking down at the few inches of space between them. “Just two dudes dancing up in each other's business.”

Lassiter groaned.

The dark atmosphere, flashing lights, dancing and loud music put Lassier in a sort of trance. His eyes connected to Shawn’s and didn't leave. He was really getting into the music, feeling more and more comfortable about his moves as the seconds ticked on. 

Shawn was getting rather close with him and for once, Lassiter let himself not care. He just continued to dance. He was actually having fun; they were both having fun.

“I need to sit down,” Lassiter panted after the 5th song. Shawn grabbed his hands and led him to a dark alcove in the corner of the room. He sat them down, so that they were touching, his leg draped comfortably over Lassiter’s.

“Tap dancing!” Shawn shouted. “I definitely remember you tap dancing before!”

“Oh, well yes, that was, uh-” Lassiter fumbled with his words, embarrassed.

“You were great at it!” Shawn said fondly.

Lassiter’s cheeks reddened, not expecting the compliment.

“But you were better tonight,” Shawn winked. The words made Lassiter’s heart jump inside his chest.

* * *

The rest of the night was a blur that involved more drinking, dancing and playful flirting. By the end of that night, or early morning for that matter, Shawn was practically attached at Lassiter’s hip. He was already an incredibly touchy man sober, but when he was more on the drunk side, he was 100x worse. Lassiter and Shawn both weren't caring about their sudden grabbiness with each other. 

“Come over ‘ere, Lassie,” Shawn said lazily, leading the two against a wall.

“What do ya want, Spencer?” Lassiter replied, confused.

Shawn walked over to Lassiter and kissed him on the lips and then backed away immediately, half-expecting Lassiter to pummel him.

“Shawn. You’re ridiculous!” Lassiter said, wiping his mouth.

“I'm not being ridiculous, Lassie,” Shawn said, trying his best to gage the response. After a few seconds he got closer. “I meant that, Carlton. This is the way I feel about you and I just wanted you to know. In case you feel the same way, that is.”

“Well, I- um.” Lassiter started, not knowing what to do. 'To hell with it,' he thought a few moments after looking at Shawn’s disappointed puppy face. Lassiter went in for another kiss, pulling Shawn closer to him this time. “Shit,” Lassiter groaned, vaguely realizing what he had done but not caring at that particular moment. 

“Mmm, Lassie,” Shawn moaned in his mouth, going in for yet another kiss, deciding to grab at Lassiter’s lower lip with his teeth this time. Shawn pushed Lassiter’s back against the wall; Lassiter’s hands were holding onto Shawn tightly. “I've been wantin’ to do this for that for a while, you have no idea,” Shawn explained. Lassiter let out a breathy sigh in agreement. Shawn and Lassiter kissed for a few more minutes then Shawn backed away, leaving Lassiter breathless, confused, dizzy and wanting more.

* * *

The two stumbled back to the hotel in the early hours of the morning, using each other as leverage and support. Shawn barfed in a alleyway a block from the hotel. Lassiter managed to pull him all the way up to their room after that.

Lassiter woke up the next morning sitting against his bed with Shawn a few feet away from him, comfortably on a mattress. His head was throbbing so he decided to go to his bag to grab some aspirin. 

He must have been rifling through his bag rather loudly because he heard Shawn groan at the noise. “Be quieter, Lassie,” Shawn hissed.

“Sorry, Shawn, I-” Lassiter stopped himself. Shawn? Had he just said Shawn? The memories of last night came flooding back into his mind as soon as he uttered the name. Lassiter’s eyes widened.

“You what?” Shawn mumbled.

“I’m just getting some aspirin.”

“Get me some too, will ya?”

“Yeah….I’ll do that.” Lassiter said slowly. 

That was when Shawn noticed something about Lassiter was off. “You okay, man?”

“I’m fine,” Lassiter answered, tossing the pill bottle towards Shawn who clumsily caught it.

Shawn had remembered the last night immediately when he woke up. He remembered his drunk self thinking that drunk Lassiter wouldn’t remember the encounter. He had seen Lassiter intoxicated before, even had a conversation with him and the man didn’t remember anything. Lassiter definitely knew that something was up from his reaction, or at least suspected something. Shawn gulped.

“Time to go home today, huh?” Shawn asked, trying to gauge the situation.

“That's right,” Lassiter said, looking Shawn in the eye. Right then-and-there Shawn knew that Lassiter remembered everything. And he clearly didn’t want to talk about it. Shawn had fucked up big time.


	8. Chapter 8

‘Please don’t mention us drunkenly kissing,” Lassiter thought as the two men packed their bags to finally leave their hotel room.

Lassiter was completely embarrassed about what had happened between the two of them that previous night. He didn’t remember all of it, but he knew for sure that he and Shawn had been kissing at one point and that they were both drunk. Lassiter shuddered at the memory, he vividly remembered enjoying it at the time. But if Shawn and himself had been anything but drunk, they wouldn’t have done what they did at all; he knew that for certain. Fortunately, the man himself didn’t say anything as they finished packing. “Meet me in the car,” Lassiter said, finishing first and exiting the room. “I’m going to return they key and check us out.” 

“All right, partner,” Shawn said putting on a southern drawl to say that. Lassiter couldn’t help the side of his mouth flinching into a smile at that.

As Lassiter got into the elevator, Shawn ran up behind him and stuck ins hand in the closing door. “Made it!” he announced and the two rode down the elevator down together. Lassiter was nervously tapped his foot and Shawn was whistling. When the door beeped, Lassiter handed Shawn the car keys and the fake psychic headed off to the car alone.

* * *

Shawn threw his bag in the trunk, entered the car and threw his feet on the dashboard as he sat down in the seat.

There was still the possibility of Lassiter not remembering what had happened, Shawn reasoned with himself. Even if he did, he could just say that they were both drunk. At the time it however, Shawn could have sworn that Lassiter was….. enjoying it….but perhaps he was just imagining things. Lassiter _did_ engage that second kiss, though and Shawn wanted to know why.

As soon as Lassiter got into the car, they started their long drive back. No words were exchanged still. They pulled out of the parking lot, rounded the corner, passed the dinner and then found their way back to the freeway. 

The Californian traffic wasn’t that bad because it was earlier in the day and Shawn let himself sleep in the car for the first few hours of the journey. He would bring up the issue of the lack of eating breakfast and what happened last night when he woke.

* * *

Lassiter’s face was still angry and sour. He was glad to find that Shawn chose to pursue sleep early on into the journey. He needed some serious time to think to himself about what had happened. 

1) They were celebrating.  
2) They both had some alcohol.  
3) Shawn kissed him for some reason?  
4) He had also kissed Shawn back.  
5) Shawn admitted that he had been wanting to kiss Lassiter for awhile. That last one was the scariest of them all but Lassiter had still kissed him after he said that. He would have kissed him all night if Shawn hadn’t backed away like he did. It almost felt like a cruel joke when Shawn left him alone, like he was being played. It hurt.

They had skipped breakfast in effort to get an early start but now the morning traffic was getting heavy so Lassiter decided to stop their progress go to breakfast after almost two and a half hours of driving. He needed a break from sitting down too. Driving to and from the conference was always the worst part about it.

This time they stopped in a shopping center right off the freeway to eat. Lassiter had to wake Shawn up.

“Hey, Spencer. Spencer. Hey. Get up.”

Shawn groaned lightly but other than that, he was not very responsive.

Lassiter put his hand on Shawn’s shoulders and nudged him. “Spencer, get up. Breakfast.”

Shawn's eyes shot open and the pair got out of the car to eat. They still didn’t talk about what happened during their meal at that point and both men seemed incredibly uncomfortable.

“I was so hungry,” Shawn said, near the end of his meal. Lassiter rolled his eyes.“You know, because of what happened last night. Remember last night? I barfed.”

Lassiter froze. “Yes, I remember last night,” he breathed. “How could I forget.” 

“I don’t think I can forget either,” Shawn smiled, lovingly looking at the head Detective of Santa Barbara Police Station.

‘Bastard,’ Lassiter thought. Shawn meant that he couldn’t forget the way Lassiter had given into the kiss, given in to a man he claimed to despised every day of his life.

Shame of how much he enjoyed and wanted it came flooding back to him from the night before. 

Then a revelation hit.

He’d enjoyed it.

That was the second time the thought poked its way in his mind, but yes, he’d enjoyed it. And goddammit, he wanted more. He might have wanted it for a long time, perhaps as long as Shawn himself claimed that he did. But all this time he was scared to admit it. Or even think about it.

Shawn wasn’t someone he should have or wanted to have feelings for but it had happened, regardless. It happened and it was like a knife to his chest. The instinct to get up and leave came rushing in his body. Damn Shawn for shoving what had happened last night his face. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he snapped. And he didn’t.

Shawn’s face looked hurt but he nodded. “Oh. Okay, Lassie.”

“I need to stretch my legs some more. Meet me back at the car in a half-hour.” Lassiter got up.

When he got out of the building, he walked out of Shawn’s sight as quickly as he could. His eyes were a little blurry and his head was pounding. Yes, he reached an epiphany. That drunk kiss opened his eyes and had cleared any doubts in his mind of how he felt about Shawn. He was attracted to him. He enjoyed his company. He liked being around him despite himself. Yes, he liked that silly man. And this all came to fruition because drunk Shawn thought it would be funny to kiss him and see his reaction. Idiot.

* * *

Shawn waited inside the restaurant until he saw Lassiter completely disappear from sight. After, he got up from the table, payed then exited the building slowly. Lassiter was nowhere to be found and Shawn was left to himself. 

Last night had been a bad idea, Shawn reasoned. 

He had only briefly alluded to what had happened the other night and Lassiter shut down. He couldn’t tell what he was thinking. 

Was he mad at him? Mad at himself? Shawn didn't want their friendship to end, however much he _did_ want to kiss Lassiter again. He would just have to lay off on talking about it for the time being. He figured Lassiter would return to the car, still shaken up, but then he would forget about it after awhile. Shawn frowned. They would have to never speak about what happened at this conference ever again and that made Shawn heartbroken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They took Psych off of Netflix and I am sad so I wrote this chapter EXTRA badly.


	9. Chapter 9

Lassiter returned to the car approximately 121 seconds late, according to his watch, and Shawn still wasn’t there. Lassiter unlocked his car, turned on the air conditioning and waited; tapping his foot all the while. Shawn came running up to the car exactly 36 seconds later holding two ice cream cones.

“Rocky Road for you, and Rainbow Sherbet for me,” Shawn announced.

“What. No pineapple?” Lassiter asked sarcastically.

“They didn't have any.” 

“Thanks, I guess.” Lassiter grabbed the cone and started licking. He could feel Shawn watching him and the hairs at the back of his head started prickling up.

“Ready?” Shawn spoke.

“Yeah.” Lassiter put his car to drive with one hand with the other holding onto the ice-cream cone.

The rest of the journey went by well. Shawn didn't bring up the previous night at all and the two men found themselves chatting about other subjects every now and then. Lassiter even caught himself and Shawn genuinely smiling at each other and enjoying one another’s company a few times.

They could get passed this as long as no one mentioned a thing.

* * *

They arrived back in Santa Barbara a few hours later. Lassiter drove back to the station where Shawn had planned to pick up his bike and Lassiter planned to get his mind off everything that had happened by working the rest of the day.

“You're both back earlier than I expected!” O’Hara enthusiastically remarked when the men came into the main office where she had been working. Delighted, she simultaneously slung her arms around both of the men’s neck as they approached, drawing them closer together.

“Happy to see me?” asked Shawn, smiling brightly.

“Yes, Shawn I’m happy to see you,” Juliet said truthfully. “I’m happy to see you too, Lassiter!”

“Mmm.” Lassiter grunted.

“Oh, Shawn-” Juliet asked. 

“Yes, what is it?”

“There was a bag of, uh, snacks left on you motor bike. We got a lot of complaints about the smell and threw it away, sorry. It was the tuna”

“And you didn’t even salvage the non-perishables?” Shawn complained. “Damn.”

After Juliet and everyone was done asking them how the trip went, Shawn waved goodbye and collected his motorbike keys and gear from storage. Then, he went outside and started his bike up. The hum of the powerful motor took control of all his senses. God, did he miss it. The drive back to his apartment only took about 15 short minutes.

It was good to be home, Shawn thought as he walked in and threw his bag of dirty clothes on the floor. It was good, but it was _so_ empty. He was completely alone in his house. Shawn pulled out his cell phone and sent a text to Gus:

Shawn: Hey, Buddy. Just got home. Want to hang?

Gus: I get out of work at five. How about we get some dinner then stop by the Psych office to get caught up on some cases?

Shawn: SOunds Good :>

Shawn: I want Italian. 

Shawn: How bout Antonio’s?

Gus: You know it.

Shawn: K, see u then :)

Shawn put his phone back into his pocket. He now had a few hours to kill before he would be able to talk to Gus about what happened. He sat down on his couch and grabbed his laptop from where he last left it. 

Not much had happened since he had been away it seemed.

There was one thing that he had been wanting to do and had missed doing while sharing a room with Lassie, however….. Shawn clicked on a new tab and then unbuttoned his jeans.

* * *

Going straight back to work after driving for hours on end probably wasn’t a good idea in hindsight. Lassiter struggled to catch up on the case Juliet had been working on without him since he had been gone; his eyes felt heavy and he just wanted to relax. ‘No doubt that’s what Shawn’s doing right now,’ he thought to himself. “Relaxing.’

“Lassiter?” Juliet had interrupted his train of thought.

“Hmm? What is it O’Hara?”

“Oh nothing, you were just staring off into space. Again. ”

“Was I?” he questioned out loud.

“Yes. And that’s not normal for you. Anyway, how was that trip of yours? You said that you were too busy to talk about it earlier but now that things have calmed down in the station a bit, it seems like a good time for a little break from work to chat.”

“It was fine, as I said earlier. I’m sure you heard what happened with the presentation as soon as it happened. It was a big deal, apparently.”

“Oh yes. The whole department was talking about it! Did Shawn really do that?”

“Unfortunately he did,” Lassiter cracked a smile. “But it turned out to be one of the best things he did all weekend. He did really well, actually.”

“One of the best things?” Juliet inquired. “There were others?”

“Erm. Well, being trapped in a hotel with Shawn wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”

“No….!” Juliet gasped. She clutched her mouth and had wide eyes. “You didn’t?”

Lassiter looked around confused. “Didn’t what?”

“You and Shawn!” she said excitedly flailing her arms.

“What about us?” 

“Did you just say ‘us’? Oh my God, Lassiter I’m surprised you guys took so long! A few of us had suspected something a long long time ago. We set a bet! Good for you two!”

Lassiter’s blood ran cold; he was terrified that she had found out about them kissing and chose his next words cautiously. “I... feel like I’m missing something here. Care to explain?” Lassiter attempted to keep his voice steady but failed.

“The looks you two were giving each other earlier. The failed attempts to try to not look interested in another? I _am_ a detective, after-all. As soon as you walked in, I felt a shift between you two. I knew it!”

Lassiter raised a single eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" He managed to say again, this time with a somewhat steadier voice.

“Oh... You aren’t dating?” Juliet said.

“Not that I know of, no.”

“Shit! Sorry if I interpreted that wrong. You hardly flat-out compliment him like you did about his performance at the conference. And it’s just... you should see the way he looks at you sometimes; the man adores you. And I’ve even seen you peek back at him a few times when you thought nobody else was looking.” Juliet paused herself. “Wow. This is awkward. Sorry.”

“Shawn adores me?” Out of all she said, _that_ was the thing Lassiter decided to pick up on and mummer out loud.

“Of course! He looks like a love sick puppy whenever he comes over to your desk.”

“You're imaging things.”

“No I’m not! He might have even told me a few times that he’s interested in you. I asked you if you wanted to go out with him a couple of times too but you said no, of course.”

“You what?! I don’t remember. Wait I do, I thought you meant he wanted to go undercover for a case.”

“He’s asked you out himself a few times too.”

“No. No. No. That was just Shawn being, well _Shawn_! He flirts with everyone. Talks to everyone that way.”

“You're the only one he’s asked out to an actual dinner though. If it involves food, he’s serious. Please don’t be mad with me. I thought you knew. I’m only saying this because I thought you two were, you know! I’m so sorry, I’ll shut up now.”

“Up until a few days ago, I thought of Shawn as a rival. A menace and disgrace to our work. I thought he wanted nothing more for me to suffer and look like a fool while he came out victorious. But that wasn’t the case. That wasn’t the case at all.”

“I know-” Juliet started.

“But now. Now I don’t know O’Hara. It’s all changed now. He’s not that bad. Perhaps we work together better than I thought.”

“Carlton. What happened at the hotel?! If you said all this a week ago I wouldn’t believe my own ears!”

Lassiter looked around the room cautiously. ”He kissed me,” he whispered harshly towards Juliet, putting his head down shortly thereafter to avoid Juliet’s reaction and to hide his own blushing cheeks. Juliet almost let out a gasp but covered her mouth in time. “At the time, I thought it was a mistake of judgment on his part. But since I’ve had time to think about it, I suppose there’s been clues all along as to him feeling this way. I don’t know what to do. I’m the worst detective ever. Kudos to you for finding out before me.

“And you feel the same way about him?” Juliet asked intently.

“I think so.”

“Oh my God.”

“Yeah, I know.”

* * *

Burton Guster stepped out of the blueberry and headed into Shawn’s apartment with the spare key Shawn had given him. When he entered, he could see Shawn slumped over on the couch, nearly asleep. As soon as he heard the door shut, Shawn perked up and got to his feet.

“You ready to go, man?”

“Yup.”

They hopped back into the blueberry, drove to Antonio’s and ordered to-go. Each man carried large carry-out bag on their hands as they entered the psych office. It had been days since either had been there and they expected there to be a lot for them to catch up on.

There were only eight separate callers. And three called back to say they had resolved their issues. None of the five other calls had urgent business, so they decided to eat and ignore them for now. 

“So how was your trip?” Gus finally asked him after they had finished stuffing their faces. Now, they were watching some crap TV show and eating junk food.

“Fine,” Shawn answered cooly.

“You were okay sharing a room with Lassiter and all that?”

“Of course,” Shawn grinned. “It was like one of those silly rom com movies. Full of fun and hijinks. Lassiter played the serious boss-type guy and I was the carefree and happy-go lucky assistant who ended up doing all the work. I even got him drunk.”

“Man, really? The man is not a pretty site when he’s drunk. What happened this time? He didn’t talk about his ex-wife again, did he?.”

Shawn bit his lip. “Well… that's what I wanted to talk to you about.”

Gus’s face dropped. “Shawn, what happened?”

”What do you mean?”

“Shawn. You just asked me over to the psych office, presumably to work, after spending the last few days in a hotel room with Lassiter. Something happened. You two can’t stay in the same room for more than a hour without getting on each others nerves.”

Shawn ran his fingers through his hair and sat back in the chair, looking up at the ceiling. “What happened. It wasn’t bad. Like I said, I got Lassie drunk.”

“And then?” Gus asked.

“Then we kissed.” Shawn said.

“Excuse me. You what?!”

“We kissed, Gus. I put my mouth on his and we went “Muah, Muah” and our tongues kinda touched each others. Picture squid legs tangling up on each other.”

“What?” Gus asked.

“What.”

“Don’t dodge my question, Shawn.”

“I don’t know, it just... happened. You know that I’ve liked Lassie and his bold, blue, Irish eyes for forever now, right?” Gus nodded. “Being alone with him for so long, just the two of us. I dunno, I just couldn’t help it. I actually saw a different side of him, can you believe it? It made me want to kiss him even more than before. I wanted to show him that I care about him, ya know?”

“Mmmm. You held yourself back longer than I expected. I was getting worried you gave up on him.” Gus put his hand on Shawn’s shoulder. 

Shawn looked up.“I think I made a mistake.”

“Why?”

“He doesn't feel the same way.”

“You sure? The man can be pretty awkward, you know?”

“I think that I’m certain this time. He had that, ‘don’t you dare open your mouth, Spencer or I’ll shoot you’ look on his face. And then when I tried to talk about it, he told me that ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’”

“Rough.”

“I know.”

“Give him some time,” Gus said. “I can think of about 100, no 110 ways that it could have gone worse. He didn’t yell at you, did he?” Shawn shook his head. “Or push you away?” Shawn shook his head again. “He didn’t leave you up North either cause you're here right now. That’s a good sign.”

“Yeah. Guess your right.”

“Then there’s a chance for you then?” 

Shawn shrugged. 

Gus smiled hopefully and held up his clenched hand up for a fistbump.

Shawn fistbumped him back. “Thanks.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been 6 months since I've updated XD **Full permission to yell at me for anyone who's still keeping up with this.** Anyway, I found my outline and I AM going to finish this. It originally was a lot longer but I am going to cut a lot out. Expect like 3ish more chapters. Then its over :) I don't know if ima add any smut yet...

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, my writing is so bad/cheesy in this it made _me_ laugh.  
>  As of now the rating is now T. Might get higher later on? Thank you people who are sticking with this story because I am basically the worst at updating ;~; (It's been almost been a year and a half since I stated, omg) I swear on my life this WILL get finished.


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